London: One of Rolf Harris’ alleged victims was due to take the witness stand overnight, as his trial gets under way in earnest.

The 84-year-old Australian entertainer faces 12 charges of indecent assault against four girls, from 1968 to 1986. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

On Friday, prosecutor Sasha Wass pleaded for the jury to put Harris’ fame out of their minds as they listened to the evidence.

She also warned them not to be influenced by recent public discussion about what kind of physical approaches to women were normal or “not exceptional” in the 1960s and 70s.

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"When a man aged in his fifties or sixties corners young girls … then interferes with them… you might think those victims deserve to have a voice and should not be dismissed or ignored," she said.

Just because they were historic allegations they should not be dismissed, Ms Wass added. It can take many years for victims of indecent assault to admit what took place, and they tend to blame themselves, she said.

“Such event may damage them and play on their minds for the whole of their lives,” Ms Wass said. “These sexual offences may be historic but the consequences of them are frequently current and ongoing – life-changing on some occasions.”

On Friday Ms Wass outlined the case against Harris.

She described him as a “Jekyll and Hyde” character whose talent and public generosity hid a darker side: he was sexually attracted to young women and girls.

And she revealed – though the jury was later asked to put it out of their minds until they heard the evidence – that at Channel Seven in Australia he was known as "the octopus".

“You will see a pattern during the course of this case of Mr Harris approaching girls in a purely friendly way and then, once he is in close physical contact with them, taking advantage of the situation in order to indecently assault them,” Ms Wass said.

Ms Wass said the "main complainant" in the case was a childhood friend of Harris’ daughter Bindi.

The prosecution claims that Harris first assaulted her aged only 13, on a holiday in Hawaii and Australia.

She said that Harris groomed his victim through repeated assaults through her teenage years back in the UK.

From age 19 to 29, the complainant consented to Harris’ “sexual requirements”, the prosecutor said.

In a letter Harris allegedly wrote to the victim’s father, he confessed to an affair with the complainant. He apologised for his actions saying he was in a state of “abject self-loathing”.

However he denied that the abuse began when the victim was 13, saying “nothing took place in a physical way” until at least 1983, when the complainant was about 18.

The trial at Southwark Crown Court is expected to last until mid-June.